What a year it has been for the sport's globalists so far: a Japanese horse wins the Breeders' Cup Classic in California, a French horse wins the Japan Cup in Tokyo. A Hong Kong sprinter wins the world's richest race on turf in Sydney. Japan beats Hong Kong in the richest race ever run on the Saudi Arabian sand under lights in Riyadh.
For all of racing's problems, when borders open and the best actually race each other, the sport suddenly looks bigger and more alive. It's amazing what happens when people put horses on planes instead of staying in their postcodes.
Hong Kong has been central to the revival. The city’s first international raider, River Verdon, was stabled in a wooden box inside a tent in Chicago back in 1992. Primitive conditions and no blueprint to follow. He didn't win, but the point wasn't glory, it was discovery and Hong Kong realised its good horses weren't far off the world's good best. That small step made the next ones possible. The great trainer Ivan Allan pushed further with Hong Kong's first win abroad when Fairy King Prawn won the Yasuda Kinen in 2000.
Twenty-five years later, the logistics are better, the prize money is much bigger, but the principle hasn't changed: when horses travel, racing feels like the global sport it should aspire to be. And Hong Kong can host now too as the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) have grown.
This year the borders moved in every direction. A Japanese dirt horse wins America's great race. A French turf champion restores the Japan Cup's international identity. A Hong Kong sprinter goes to Sydney and wins The Everest against the best sprinters in the world. Romantic Warrior and Forever Young turn Saudi Arabia's mega-money race into something real and iconic.
There are still holdouts. Asfoora slices through Europe yet probably wouldn't make the field for a 12-horse Everest at home. Australians, aside from the brave outliers like Asfoora, generally treat overseas campaigns like a voluntary tax audit.
After all, it isn't the horses that don't want to travel, it's the people.
After some lean years, Hong Kong has swung the other way. Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising – the city's two best – left their comfort zones and met the world on equal terms. Romantic Warrior travelled to the Middle East after an incredible run that included wins in Melbourne, Tokyo, Dubai and at home at Sha Tin. His Saudi duel with Forever Young was one of those races that remind you why the sport is great. Ka Ying Rising went to Sydney with a target on his back, ignored the whispers, and won the A$20 million Everest on his own terms.
Self Improvement may not be anywhere near the class of those two superstars but when he won the Korea Sprint in Seoul, with Jerry Chau, a Hong Kong jockey standing on a global stage, it lifted a key jurisdiction up. In a region that already lost Singapore and Macau, Korea matters.
And now the Hong Kong International Races loom next week at Sha Tin. Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising are back on home turf, which feels slightly unfair on the visitors but perfectly fair given what they achieved. They took on the world; now they get to stay home and let everyone else do the travelling.
The Vase looks genuinely competitive: reigning champion Giavellotto returns, with Sosie and Urban Chic adding fresh form. The Mile lacks a dominant favourite but that is what might make it the race of the day: Voyage Bubble drops back in trip, Galaxy Patch and My Wish represent the locals, and Japan arrives with Soul Rush and Embroidery.
This is what the sport looks like when adventure is embraced: big horses, big crowds, real contests. Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising are back at Sha Tin now, on their own patch, and you get the feeling a few potential visitors looked at their passports this year and thought twice. If the overseas-winning theme is to continue at the Hong Kong International Races, it will have to go through them.
